WANDERERS will once again walk up to the courtroom door at the glass-fronted Rolls Building in London not knowing what the future really holds.

It is three years since the club’s legal representative Hillary Stonefrost argued a series of stays of execution at the High Court to facilitate a takeover by Sports Shield BWFC, led by Dean Holdsworth and, eventually, Ken Anderson.

So much has happened since, and yet it can be argued that the threat to the club’s future as they defend a sixth winding-up petition in 16 months this morning is greater than ever before.

A tax bill of £1.2million has forced this matter to court but such is HMRC’s notoriously vigorous pursuit of such debts that it is entirely possible they will highlight recent financial problems and demand the court liquidate Bolton’s assets, rather than take them into administration and look to salvage their debt another way.

Whether a judge can be convinced to allow Wanderers extra time to find a buyer, find someone willing to fund the administration, or just get the bill paid outright, will all be answered at some stage today.

It is six years since Aldershot became the last member of the EFL to go into administration. The same club can recount the horrors of being liquidated and forced to resign in 1991/92, all their season's results expunged.

Such cataclysmic scenarios were being played out yesterday by the most pessimistic Wanderers fans. Though the prospect of a white knight riding in to save the club such embarrassment still looked a distant prospect as The Bolton News went to press last night, the events of 2016 do show that strange things can happen in the final hours before a hearing.

Back then a solicitor's letter which arrived just 30 minutes before legal representatives locked horns in the courtroom saved Wanderers from the worst-case scenario and gave the judge confidence to award an extension.

With that in mind, perhaps some solace can be taken from a club statement issued yesterday afternoon which officially confirmed that talks had ended with one buyer – almost certainly the Football Ventures consortium - but that others were in the vicinity.

“Bolton Wanderers Football Club can confirm that discussions with one of the interested parties have now been mutually terminated,” the statement read.

“The Club can also confirm that discussions are ongoing with other parties.

“A further update will be made in due course.”

No reasons have been supplied by the FV consortium on why they had given up their pursuit, having once been just hours from completion. The news coincided, however, with League Two Forest Green confirming they had started legal action to reclaim lost earnings in the collapsed Christian Doidge deal.

Rovers chairman Dale Vince had said back in January: "Bolton entered into a contract to loan and then buy Christian last August without the means to honour it.

"They haven't even paid his wages for the past four months - we have.

"We've taken the decision to recall him after his loan agreement expired last week.

"Anderson made a lot of promises on the last day of the transfer window, both to Christian and FGR, and has kept none of them.

"This is all his work and from talking to Ken he feels immune from the consequences - but some of these promises are written in legally binding contracts, and we'll be pursuing them."

Dale’s six-figure claim is one of several hidden problems which are reported to have been uncovered in recent weeks, with one source claiming more than £10m of unexpected creditors have been unearthed.

Should Wanderers seek an extension, Anderson will have to prove to the court that negotiations with a new party have progressed to a sufficient stage.

No-one other than the FV consortium has managed to do due diligence, however, so any buyer willing to step in at this late stage would be taking a significant gamble.

The EFL has indicated that it will help broker and smooth the way for anyone who comes forward but having got so close to the finishing line, last-minute negotiations with the FV consortium may be Wanderers and Anderson's only hope.

In recent weeks the prospect has been mooted that one of the major stakeholders could act and put the club into administration - but that act now rests in the hands of a judge and HMRC.

Just as in 2016, this morning's court process could be a blink-and-you'll-miss-it affair. Hundreds of cases will be heard and waved through - including Macclesfield Town - but the impact of the decision on a founder member of the league with 145 years of history behind it will be considerable.